Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology is generally used to detect voice and key inputs from a caller. Various organizations such as banks, insurance companies, and other service providers use IVR technology to manage calls from their customers. Typically, IVR systems are used by organizations that have high call volumes. An objective for implementing the IVR systems is to provide the customers with a quick and good experience. Moreover, the cost of providing the services is reduced.
Generally, when the caller calls a destination, such as a bank, an automated audio menu is played. The audio IVR menu can contain instructions to provide instant services such as account balance inquiry when the destination is a bank. Further, audio menu can provide options for the caller to connect to a desired end inside the destination. For example, the menu may direct the caller to press various keys on a telephone to connect to a particular department or agent. The audio IVR menu is designed specific to a destination. Therefore, each destination or organization may have different IVR menus. Further, the IVR menu in an organization can be based on the type of departments, type of services, customer care executives or agents and so forth. For example, an IVR menu of a bank may include options related to the account details of the caller, while an IVR menu of a pizzeria may contain options to order or select a pizza.
Typically, the caller calling the destination may have to listen and follow instructions on the menu to get a desired response or a function performed. Therefore, the process can be time consuming. Moreover, in case the caller provides an incorrect input, the complete process may have to be repeated. Furthermore, the IVR menu for an organization may be updated or changed regularly. For example, extension numbers inside an organization may be changed and correspondingly, the extension numbers associated with the IVR menu may be updated. As a result, a frequent caller may not be able to reach a desired end by remembering a combination of numbers. Therefore, the caller may become frustrated with the IVR systems.
Some prior art try to address this problem by providing visual form of IVR. These prior arts display the IVR menu graphically on a caller device. U.S. Pat. No. 7,215,743 assigned to International Business Machines Corporation and a published U.S. patent application with Ser. No. 11/957,605, filed Dec. 17, 2007 and assigned to Motorola Inc., provides the IVR menu of the destination in a visual form to the caller. The caller can select the options from the IVR menu without listening to the complete audio IVR menu. However, the IVR menu displayed on the caller device is stored on an IVR server at the destination end. As a result, the visual IVR menu is specific to the destination and only the IVR of the destination dialed is displayed. Further, the IVR menu may be required to be configured on the server of the destination to display it to the caller, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,738 assigned to International Business Machines Corporation. A U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/467,548, filed Aug. 26, 2006 discloses sending digital signals from the destination to the caller device. Thereafter, the digital signals are processed by the caller device for presenting a visual display of the IVR menu. These techniques therefore, require each destination to set-up hardware, software and other facilities to be deployed for providing visual IVR servers.
Another existing technique as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,320 assigned to International Business Machines Corporation enables an operator of the IVR to send customized signals to the caller for generating and displaying graphical elements on the device of the caller. Thereafter, the caller can respond by selecting options through touch-screen interface of the device. Dual Tone Multi frequency (DTMF) signals of the IVR. However, this technique requires a specifically configured device to interpret the codes sent as Dual Tone Multi frequency (DTMF) signals for generating the graphics. Moreover, an operator is required to present the graphics to the caller. Furthermore, specialized software and hardware are required at the operator to design and generate DTMF codes. Therefore, the technique faces various practical limitations. Further, a U.S. Pat. No. 7,027,990 assigned to Lester Sussman, discloses visual menus for a touch-tone telephone with an embedded computer. In this case the text menus may be pre-loaded into the telephone of the caller as text menus. Therefore, when the caller dials the destination, an associated text menu is displayed on a screen. However, this technique is limited to touch-tone telephones with embedded computer. Another existing technique as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/957,605, filed on Dec. 17, 2007 and assigned to Motorola Inc., provides a directory of an IVR system in the form of, for example, a menu tree, on screen of the caller device. However, the menu tree is provided to the caller device by a remote server. Another existing technique discloses sending messages such as Short Messaging Service (SMS) to the caller device corresponding to the audible IVR menu. Such technique is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/877,952, filed Oct. 24, 2007. However, the message functions only as a visual aid and the caller is still required to listen and respond to the audio IVR menu. A published PCT Application WO 2008/086320, filed Jan. 7, 2008 and assigned to Snapin Software Inc., displays IVR menu to the caller's device after connecting a call with the destination.
Generally, the IVR menus of the organizations are in form of audible menu. Moreover, there are a large number of organizations that use IVR menus. Therefore, converting the audible menus to visual menus can be time consuming. An existing technique, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,920,425 assigned to Nortel Networks Limited, discloses an automated script to convert the audible menus scripts to visual menu scripts. However, the audible menus scripts must be available in a particular format to enable the conversion. Furthermore, the audio menu scripts must be available or downloadable for the program to function. As a result, only the audio menus scripts that are available can be converted to visual menu scripts. Furthermore, the device of the caller must be designed or programmed to understand the visual menu scripts. A U.S. Pat. No. 6,885,737 assigned to BellSouth Intellectual Property Corp., discloses a web interface for displaying the IVR menu. However, a server is required to transmit the IVR menu to the caller's device.
Various organizations encourage the customers to call them for information on their products or services, or for helping existing customers. Generally, a contact number is provided by the organizations on their website as a button. Therefore, when the customer presses the button a form is displayed. The customer then enters his contact number where an executive from the organization may call. However, this may be time consuming for the customer. Moreover, the customer may be not being able to talk to another executive during the call in case the on-line executive is not able to satisfy the customer. U.S. patent application with Ser. No. 12/049,021, filed Mar. 14, 2008 and assigned to Harprit Singh, provides methods and systems for displaying an IVR menu, when the caller clicks a link on a webpage provided by the organization. However, the customer is still required to request the webpage with embedded information from a server of the organization. Moreover, the methods and systems are limited to the organizations that provide the required webpage to the customers. Other technologies include U.S. patent application with Ser. No. 11/877,952 filed Oct. 24, 2007 and assigned to International Business Machine Corporation.
The effectiveness of providing the IVR in visual form is discussed in a technical paper titled, ‘The Benefits of Augmenting Telephone Voice Menu Navigation with Visual Browsing and Search’ by Min Yin et al. The paper discusses a setup where visual content of the IVR is sent from a service provider to a computer connected to a mobile phone. However, the technique discussed in the paper is limited to the visual content provided by the service provider's end, after the connection is established. Moreover, the providers are required to individually set up the hardware and services for providing visual content.
As discussed above the existing technologies have various limitations.